Measure innovations by what they contribute to market and customer.
The test of an innovation is whether it creates value. Innovation means the creation of new value and new satisfaction for the customer. A novelty only creates amusement. Yet, again and again, managements decide to innovate for no other reason than that they are bored with doing the same thing or making the same product day in and day out. The test of an innovation, as well as the test of “quality,” is not “Do we like it?” It is “Do customers want it and will they pay for it?”
Organizations measure innovations not by their scientific or technological importance but by what they contribute to market and customer. They consider social innovation to be as important as technological innovation. Installment selling may have had a greater impact on economics and markets than most of the great scientific advances in this century.
ACTION POINT: Identify innovations in your organization that are novelties versus those that are creating value. Did you launch the novelties because you were bored with doing the same thing? If so, make sure your next new product or service meets your customers’ needs.
The Frontiers of Management
Management Challenges for the 21st Century
* Source: The Daily Drucker by Peter F. Drucker